Abuse Suspect Was With Kids Before

Ymca Employee Had Jobs At 2 York Schools

July 24, 1996|By PATTI ROSENBERG Daily Press

YORK — A YMCA employee charged with sodomizing a child in the summer program at Dare Elementary School spent the past academic year working in the before-and-after-school program at Grafton Bethel Elementary, according to a parent who called the Daily Press on Tuesday.

Hampton YMCA Executive Director Danny Carroll said Monday that Elijah James Howell had been with the organization for a little over a year and had only worked in a program at the main building before going to Dare Elementary.

After a parent reported otherwise, Carroll confirmed that Howell had worked at Grafton Bethel Elementary from November until May before becoming the site director at Dare Elementary in June. He was hired in April 1995 and worked at the Hampton location until November, Carroll said.

"Quite frankly, I didn't know," Carroll said about why he hadn't disclosed earlier Howell's affiliation with another York County school.

But Quintonia Bighem did know about that. She has a 7-year-old son who participated in both York programs Howell was involved with.

"I am concerned about this, if they're not notifying parents at Grafton Bethel," she said Tuesday.

"It's a very scary thing," she said of the allegation against Howell, 27, of Tantallon Drive in Grove.

Carroll and Capt. Ron Montgomery of the York County Sheriff's Office said they would try to contact all the families whose children participated in the Grafton Bethel program, although they might not be able to get a list of the families immediately because school is not in session.

Howell was charged Friday with forcible sodomy of a child at the school, according to Montgomery. The child said the incident had occurred sometime during the previous two weeks, but he wasn't able to provide a specific date, Montgomery said.

It appears that there may have been more than one incident involving the same child during that period, Montgomery said.

But he said the Sheriff's Office does not have any reason to suspect other children were molested. "Right now we feel this is probably going to be an isolated incident," he said.